Managing wisely all the duplicate files that pile up inadvertently in our various storage devices can save us a lot of disk space and help us in having our file system more neatly organized. Wise Duplicate Finder has been designed to search for possible duplicate files among not only those files whose name is identical, but also among those with an identical file size or with similarities in their content.

The program allows you to define the type of search according to the level of coincidence you are looking for and to the speed at which you want your duplicates to be retrieved. Thus, you can tell the app to search for files with the same name and size (this option being the fastest one), those that show a partial match, an exact match (the slowest of all options, yet the most accurate one), and for files with 0 bytes. In the Advanced Settings dialog, you will also find a useful set of options to include or exclude from the scan process specific groups of extensions, which will allow you to narrow the search to image files, audio files, video files, documents, archives, or e-mail backup files only. Once the scan is over, the results are presented in groups of possible duplicates, each colored differently (following your preferences) to help you identify them quickly at a glance. Each file is listed with its name, size, folder, and modification date to help you decide which are true duplicates and which are different versions of the same file.

You can tell the program to deal with all possible duplicates automatically, which will remove all those files considered to be duplicates (false positives and false negatives included) and leave the original file untouched. Alternatively, you can do the selection yourself manually by checking the boxes of those files that you want to remove. As a backup solution, the app offers you the possibility of recovering any wrongly-deleted file in a snap. Either way, none of these duplicate removal processes will be carried out effectively until you purchase the corresponding license and register your copy – the free trial provided by the developers will simply identify the possible duplicates, but it won’t help you remove them. You can always use the path provided for each potential duplicate file and delete them yourself manually.

Wise Duplicate Finder is both fast and reliable. Its customizable scan options allow you to perform searches either at a high speed or with the highest level of reliability, following your preferences. The fact that the trial version won’t delete any of the possible duplicates for you doesn’t detract from the fact that the scan results it provides are both comprehensive and accurate, which, to me, is the core function of any duplicate finder.